Apacer's DDR2-667 Fully-Buffered DIMM modules fully meet the JEDEC specifications and are fully tested with Apple Mac Pro platforms to ensure compatibility and stability. They have also been certified by Intel and tested by major server and workstation makers.

Infineon Technologies and Global Locate announced the successful development of the industry’s smallest Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver chip for mobile telephones, smart phones and personal navigation devices.

Based on the Hammerhead chip, the new Hammerhead II chip is optimized for cellular handsets and mobile devices requiring high performance, low power and an extremely small footprint. The diminutive single-die chip measures only 3.74 mm x 3.59 mm x 0.6 mm, for a total footprint of less than 14 mm², resulting in the world’s smallest GPS receiver.

The Hammerhead II GPS receiver includes LNA, RF down-converter and signal processing baseband technology on a single RFCMOS die. The package features a 49-contact Ball Grid Array, further simplifying layout and assembly.

The Hammerhead II chip delivers sensitivity of -160 dBm and position fix times of as fast as 1 second, exceeding 3GPP specifications. In addition, the software has been optimized for personal navigation performance, and includes sophisticated algorithms to mitigate multipath errors.

Hammerhead II retains the same core advantages as all previous Global Locate solutions by utilizing the commercially proven host-based architecture. The software is completely backward-compatible with Hammerhead, allowing an easy transition to the new, smaller part as changing form-factors require.

The Hammerhead II chip is sampling now, with production quantities available in February 2007. Infineon and Global Locate are jointly marketing the chip.

AMD announced development of DTX, an open standard specification designed by AMD to enable the broad adoption of small form factor PCs. The DTX standard will be designed to empower OEMs, ODMs, and component vendors to deliver solutions to market that are smaller, quieter, and desktop-friendly, while leveraging commonalities within the ecosystem that benefit both customers and end users. The DTX standard will take advantage of the existing ATX infrastructure and benefits, including cost efficiency, system options and backward-compatibility, to allow for newer PC design. A review copy of the DTX specifications is planned to be made available by AMD in Q1'2007.

The DTX standard will be designed to embrace energy-efficient processors from AMD or other hardware vendors, and allow an optimally designed small form factor system to consume less power and generate less noise. When processor power consumption is reduced, system size and cooling costs can also go down. Energy efficient processors can also help extend the longevity of PCs, while offering consumer and business users a quiet, more pleasant experience in their offices or living rooms.

OEMs will also be able to enjoy the inherent cost benefits of standardization. With the DTX open standard specification, the potential exists for the small form factor market to reap the similar benefits to what the ATX standard has done for the desktop market in recent years.

DTX will be designed to provide improved motherboard layout standardization, while being sensitive to the needs of OEMs, ODMs, and component vendors. As the desktop market moves to lower thermal design power (TDP) processors and works to lower costs, an eye to balancing interchangeability of components with small form factor products becomes critical. In addition, DTX chassis vendors can help mitigate the financial risk associated with proprietary small form factor designs by offering DTX-standard products to the channel, in either component form or as bare-bones systems. The general DTX specification will only define a minimum set of parameters necessary for interoperability, freeing vendors to innovate.

DTX, which will allow up to four motherboards – for low cost – per standard printed circuit board manufacturing panel sizes; and

Mini-DTX, which will allow up to six motherboards – for low cost – per standard printed circuit board manufacturing panel sizes;

DTX motherboards can be manufactured in as few as four-layers of printed circuit board wiring for motherboard cost savings.

By leveraging backward-compatibility with ATX infrastructure, vendors may gain a low-cost DTX product offering with little development expense.

The market pull for small form factors PCs is of particular interest in the small and medium business (SMB) and consumer markets that value the size advantage, power savings, and quiet nature of energy-efficient systems.

DIRECTV, the satellite television service provider, announced that the DIRECTV Plus HD DVR has been verified with Intel Viiv technology. With this certification, DIRECTV becomes largest supplier of Viiv-verified digital media adapters (DMAs).

DIRECTV customers who have a DIRECTV Plus HD DVR can now access their pictures and music on their TVs directly from Intel Viiv technology-based PCs. The DIRECTV Plus HD DVR is the world’s first digital set-top box with integrated DMA functionality verified to work with Intel Viiv technology.

Photos and music are just the beginning. The Viiv functionality is already available as a public beta trial to all DIRECTV Plus HD DVR customers. Later this year, DIRECTV plans to enhance the photo and music experience, as well as provide the ability to stream video from Intel Viiv technology-based PCs via DIRECTV Plus HD DVRs.

The DIRECTV Plus HD DVR receiver verified with Intel Viiv technology is able to record and view 200 hours of standard-definition or 50 hours of MPEG 4 high-definition content.

DIRECTV has established a dedicated location on the DIRECTV Web site to help customers understand the new connectivity options available to them. For more information and support visit www.directv.com/viiv.

BenQ expanded its 19-inch LCD monitor lineup with the BenQ FP93G P LCD monitor aimed at performance-focused home and business users. The FP93G P features the advanced MVA technology that offers wide viewing angles of 178/178, contract ratio of 1300:1, 8 ms GTG response time and BenQ’s exclusive Senseye+photo technology.

The Senseye+photo technology transmits consistent colors through the sRGB color gamut, providing consistent and accurate color reproduction. The press relese claims that with Senseye+photo, the photos displayed on the screen and on the print outs will always be consistent in colors.

The BenQ FP93G P offers a 1280x1024 native resolution, 300 nits of brightness, a super slim bezel of 13 mm and is equipped with both D-sub and DVI input.